This will go down as the biggest music weekend of the summer, and not just because the world's hottest Latin rapper is coming our way.
That would be Pitbull, who will close out a weekend of star-packed concerts at Casino del Sol's AVA (his show is sold out).
Pop/R&B singer Seal opens the weekend on Friday, followed by a pair of legendary Latin acts, Los Tigres Del Norte and Banda El Recodo, on Saturday.
Here's what the weekend has in store:
• Signed Seal-ed and delivered: Seal, the soulful-voiced veteran singer from Paddington, England, is getting more press from his personal life these days than from his stage life. In case you missed the tabloid headlines, he and supermodel wife Heidi Klum are ending their seven-year marriage. But what started out as a quiet split in April has become a bitter battleground over custody of the couple's four children and their assets. Reports say there's a prenup involved. He's worth $15 million, and she's worth $70 million.
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So far it doesn't look like the stress of the breakup has affected Seal's live shows. Fan reviews posted on Ticketmaster.com praise the 49-year-old for his energy and charisma in shows that dip into his two-decade deep catalog of hits that include his signature ballad "Kiss from a Rose," "Crazy," "Prayer for the Dying," "Silence" and "Get It Together."
He shares the stage with neo-soulster Macy Gray ("Do Something," "I Try," "When I See You," "Beauty In the World").
Time and tickets: 8 p.m. Friday; $30 to $85.
• Talk about your big bills: To have Los Tigres Del Norte and Banda El Recodo on the same stage on the same night is mana from the musical gods. Los Tigres, who briefly shunned Arizona as part of the painful Soundstrike boycott, has been a fixture in the Latin music scene for five decades. They started out as a small local sensation in their adopted San Jose, Calif., but within a decade the Sinaloa, Mexico-born ensemble broke onto the national stage. Since then, they have enjoyed one of the most remarkable careers in Spanish-language pop music.
Banda El Recodo, also a product of Sinaloa, has been around even longer than Los Tigres. It traces its roots to 1938, when Don Cruz Lizárraga started the band as a way to play his clarinet. The band adopted a Mexican version of America's popular Big Band style, emphasizing a strong winds component to their music.
Lizárraga led the band, named after his hometown of El Recodo, until his death in 1995; his sons Alfonso and Joel continue to run the band today.
Time and tickets: 8 p.m. Saturday; $30 and $40
• And then there's the big dog: Pitbull is arguably one of Latin music's hottest properties and a leading voice in hip-hop. He has smartly teamed up with other big-name hip-hop artists to top the charts with infectious hooks and serious throw-downs from his breakthrough debut single "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)," to last year's "Give Me Everything" featuring Ne-Yo, AfroJack, and Nayer. That song landed in the top five biggest hits internationally.
He's keeping his name out there with the hit dance song "Back In Time," which features the unmistakable guitar riff and vocal sampling from the 1956 Mickey and Sylvia hit "Love Is Strange." (Who could forget Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze's sexy rendition in "Dirty Dancing?")
Pitbull: Planet Pit World Tour 2012 hits the AVA as something of a do-over for Pitbull's missed date back in November. He was to have been the opening act for the casino's resort hotel but had to cancel.
Time and tickets: 8 p.m. Sunday; sold out.
The AVA is at 5655 W. Valencia Road. Order tickets through tickets.solcasinos.com
